Sex toys have come a long way since the Stone Age – but then
again, perhaps not as much as we might think.

Last week, an excavation in Sweden turned up an object that
bears the unmistakable look of a penis carved out of antler bone. Though
scientists can't be sure exactly what this tool was used for, it's hard not to
leap to conclusions. [See "Sex Myths and Taboos"]

"Your mind and my mind wanders away to make this
interpretation about what it looks like – for you and me, it signals this
erected-penis-like shape," said archaeologist Göran Gruber of the National
Heritage Board in Sweden, who worked on the excavation. "But if that's the
way the Stone Age people thought about it, I can't say."

The resemblance is uncanny.

"Without doubt anyone alive at the time of its making
would have seen the penile similarities just as easily as we do today,"
wrote Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist on his blog, Aardvarchaeology.

The discovery is so recent, Gruber said, there hasn't been
enough time to submit the finding for publication in a scientific journal,
though the researchers plan to.

Ancient phallic
objects

The carved bone was unearthed at a Mesolithic site in
Motala, Sweden, that is rich with ancient artifacts from between 4,000 to 6,000
B.C. The area's unique features may have allowed bone artifacts, which usually
get destroyed over the millennia, to survive.

"It's an organic object, that's why it's special,"
Gruber told LiveScience. "Normally when we excavate early Mesolithic sites
we never get the organic material. But this site where we're excavating now is
along the shoreline. The preservation is very good here – it's been lying in
the bottom sediments and clay layers of the river, and it's been well preserved
there."

The dildo-like object is about 4 inches (10.5 cm) long and
0.8 inches (2 cm) in diameter.

It's not the first time that such a phallic
object has been found from the ancient world. Another item strongly
resembling a penis was unearthed in Germany in 2005. That one is even older –
dating from 28,000 years ago – and made of stone.

Yet the recent discovery was enough to shock the scientists
working at the dig, which is led by National Heritage Board archaeologist
Fredrik Molin.

"Nobody here, and nobody that we heard of or talked
with, had ever seen something like this in northern European or Scandinavian
sites," Gruber said.

Other uses

Perhaps instead of, or in addition to, its sexual purpose,
the object may have been used as a tool, such as to chip flakes of flint,
Gruber suggested. One end is shaped into more of a point, he said.

It's not immediately clear whether the tool would have been
one most likely to be used by men or women or both.

"If it's a tool and it's also shaped like a penis, it could
be an item where you want to discuss gender questions," Gruber said.

Sexual symbolism isn't uncommon on ancient artifacts, though
more often female
symbols, such as those representing a fertile mother Earth, are seen.

"I think this perhaps points in another direction, so
to say," Gruber said.

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Author Bio

Clara Moskowitz

Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has written for both Space.com and Live Science.